Adur counciltax frozen forthird year

Neil Parkin felt the unanimous vote in favour of holding taxes at the present level would offer a valuable boost to hard-pressed residents.

But he warned the freeze in rates was only possible due to a specific one-off grant from Government, which Adur was unlikely to be able to repeat in future given expected reduced central funding levels over the next few years.

He said: ”This is very good news for residents in Adur, as this amounts to around 10.7 per cent in real terms that people have saved over the past three years in council tax. For many people this will have been at least a couple of hundred pounds.

“Within Lancing, the cost of dealing with travellers has meant that it has had to put up its rates within the parish, but this does not actually amount to much money.”

Colin Hunt, of Lancing Parish Council, said the decision to put up its tax by 26 per cent (which equates to around £1 extra a week per household) had been taken “very reluctantly.”

He revealed rates in Lancing would have automatically gone up by 16 per cent due to Government tax changes.

He said: “Rates will go up by about £47 a year in Lancing, which will give us around £50,000 a year to build up a fund towards regeneration in Lancing. It will also go towards the cost of dealing with travellers last year, which cost us nearly £30,000.”